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Community Service Mandate for Employees of Hogan Lovells

A new policy has been created at Hogan Lovells that requires all of its 5,000 employees in 25 countries to perform 25 hours of community service per year, according to The American Lawyer.

The 25 hours can be counted towards the workday of the employees, according to CEO Stephen Immelt. Immelt hopes the 2,500 lawyers at the firm spend that time performing pro bono work.

The president and CEO of the Pro Bono Institute in Washington, D.C., Esther Lardent, said that firms have had trouble extending pro bono work outside of the United States.

"The need is obviously out there," she says. "But when you're in a major firm, actually being able to connect with and find that work is very challenging."

The leaders of Hogan Lovells agree with that sentiment.

"We realize that it's going to take a while for it to get going," Crispin Rapinet said. Rapinet is a commercial litigation partner in Hogan Lovells' London office. "In some offices, there's more work to be done than others in terms of getting everyone engaged."

Other firms require their lawyers to participate in pro bono programs, but this program seems to be the first of its kind to include non-lawyers.

Dechert requires its lawyers to perform 25 hours of pro bono work, while Arnold & Porter wants its lawyers to perform 15 percent of their time on pro bono projects.

Immelt became the CEO at Hogan Lovells in July of 2014. The firm is the work of a merger between Hogan & Hartson and Lovells, with the new firm closing in on five years.

"We're approaching our fifth anniversary, so we've been trying to identify a number of different ways we can celebrate that and express our global ambitions in a way that may be distinctive and bold," Immelt said.

The new program began when the calendar turned to 2015, but Immelt says the program still needs some ironing out before it is solid.

"It's an expectation. It's aspirational," Immelt said. "As the year goes by, we'll try to give more and more focus to it."

Summary: A new policy has been created at Hogan Lovells that requires all of its 5,000 employees in 25 countries to perform 25 hours of community service per year.

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